Multi-Compartment Oven Side-Directed Drainage for Humidity Isolation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Multi-zone ovens face challenges in handling condensed moisture from steam-assisted cooking, particularly in stacked compartments, which prevents direct bottom wall drains and compromises humidity isolation, making it difficult to maintain separate steam and no steam cooking zones.
Innovation Solution
A multi-cavity oven design with horizontally extending thermal barriers and a side-directed drain system that extracts moisture without reducing lower cavity volume, using backflow limiters to prevent steam transfer and a common drain receptacle for simplified drainage, allowing independent temperature and humidity control in each zone.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a direct bottom wall drain is used in stacked compartments, then drainage is simplified, but humidity isolation between zones is compromised and lower cavity volume is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The drain port is repositioned from the bottom wall to the vertical wall of the upper cooking cavity, changing the drainage direction from vertical to lateral. This dimensional shift allows drainage to occur without compromising the thermal barrier integrity or lower cavity volume, while maintaining humidity isolation between zones.
Solution Approach 2:
The drainage system is segmented into separate components: the drain port in the upper cavity wall, the thermal barrier with integrated drain channel, and the common drain receptacle below. This segmentation allows each component to fulfill its specific function independently, maintaining humidity isolation while enabling effective drainage.
2Ease of manufacture
If a common drain receptacle is used for multiple cavities, then manufacturing and maintenance are simplified, but steam transfer between cavities through the drainage system becomes possible
Solution Approach 1:
Backflow limiters are introduced as intermediary devices in the drainage path between the upper cooking cavity and the common drain receptacle. These limiters act as mediators that allow liquid drainage to proceed while blocking steam from traveling back up through the drainage system into the cooking cavity, thus preventing steam transfer while maintaining the common drain configuration.
3Reliability
If thermal barriers are fixed to maintain structural integrity, then humidity isolation is preserved, but adjustment of cooking cavity sizes is prevented
Solution Approach 1:
The thermal barrier is designed with removable sections that allow it to be dynamically reconfigured. The barrier can be taken down or adjusted to change the size and configuration of cooking cavities as needed, while still maintaining its humidity isolation function when properly installed. This dynamic design provides both structural integrity and operational flexibility.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution effectively manages moisture from steam-assisted cooking, maintaining humidity isolation between zones and accommodating varying compartment sizes, enabling efficient and independent control of temperature and humidity in each cooking cavity while preventing steam transfer through the drainage system.
Implementation Method 1
A drain port extends laterally through a vertical wall of each of the at least one upper cooking cavity to conduct liquid received at an upper surface of the thermal barrier
Implementation Method 2
The drain ports may communicate with the common drain receptacle through respective backflow limiters blocking conduction of steam between the cooking cavities through the drain ports
Implementation Method 3
horizontally extending thermal barriers into multiple cooking cavities
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3
Figure 4~5
AI summary
A multi-compartment oven (10) provides a side directed drainage system permitting moisture removal from the cavities (20, 20a, 20b, 20c) without interference with the integrity of lower cavity volumes and permitting removability of cavity dividers (22) .